RD20 JAY-Z (Ft. Briant "B-High" Biggs, Clark Kent, DJ Premier, Emory Jones, Gee Robertson, Jonathan Mannion, Kareem Burke, Kyambo "Hip Hop" Joshua, Memphis Bleek, Peter Panic, Ski Beatz, Tone Hooker & Tyran "Ty Ty" Smith)

B High: When we were kids, we'd be outside playing basketball. We'd be a man short and he's supposed to be on our team, and we'd be waiting for him, and you'd go get him and he'd still be upstairs writing, and, reading dictionary's, understanding words and putting them together inside his head. In the projects you live in dog years right? I remember once this lady told me "you guys might never live to be 21 years old." So at 14 or 15 years old you're damn near a grown man in your mind. You're doing things, you're hanging out all night, you might be carrying a gun, you might be selling drugs. You might have a car, you might be paying your parents rent and taking care of the household. So those years living the way you are to be 25 is like being 50. You have knowledge far past your youth. So as you get older you just accumulate more things, as you're learning more things. He just learned to play both sides of it. I remember we was driving down Nostrand Avenue one day. Listening to some music. And I was telling Jay "Yo you need to be spitting such and such man, giving them some real knowledge" and he was like "Nope, it'd be too deep. I can't be too deep I have to spoon feed them. Everything I do I have to spoon feed them lightly. If I give them too much they won't take it. Once I spoon feed them lightly, feed them sugar feed them sugar, and then give them some knowledge on top of that, and then they'll take that in and start growing with you, and you know, follow me." So you know, he had the plan.

[Musical interlude: "Politics As Usual"]

Tone Hooker: I remember one day we was chilling, and Dame told me yo think of a name for us as a rap crew. In ten minutes I wrote down ten little names. Roc-A-Fella happened to be the first name, and everybody was like "yo that's a dope name." But Dame was like "Why Roc-A-Fella, like what made you think of that?" We rock fella's on stage, you guys are flashy guys, you're about getting money, cause the Rockerfeller's were known as a rich and powerful family, so we just took the name, changed the lettering a little bit, R.O.C., it went from just a game of a group of people to an actual record company. Reasonable Doubt showed a mentality of the bosses versus the runners. The irony is to this day everybody is a boss or trying to appear like Jay first appeared in that album, Reasonable Doubt, versus when in the 90s everyone just wanted to be the best rapper, now everybody wants to be the best hustler.

[Musical interlude: "Politics As Usual"]

Kareem "Biggs" Burke: A lot of people just kind of glorified the hustling aspect of it. But if you really listen to Reasonable Doubt, he does glorify it, but at the end he shows the repercussions of it, so I think if they got the whole message, they can understand exactly why he's celebrating. Like this kid who father left him, and the environment around him and around all of us. There was always something, like Dame his mother died, his father left as a kid, and me being evicted when I was 10 years old, and living in a shelter for years. It was always that one thing in our lives that we had in common that we knew we wanted to take over the world and do something that's groundbreaking, and that's that drive that we had as we started to get older and see things and get in the business, and then having the money was always a celebration for us, but it was a celebration because of our circumstances, and I don't think people knew that. And it was always from the smallest to the tallest, like being able to get your first $100 pair of sneakers, being able to get your first bottle of champagne was a celebration. It's just that things kept growing for us, so we were celebrating all the time.

[Musical interlude: "Politics As Usual"]

Kareem "Biggs" Burke: You know I am blown away by the talent and Jay lyricism, I'm blown away by what the producers have done. I'm blown away by the artwork, I mean Jonathon Mannion's career started from that right? He did Jay's next 8 albums, he did DMX, he's doing Kendrick now and Eminem, I'm seeing interns become execs right, these kids now who build businesses and want to be part of companies and want 50/50 ventures and want to build and buy and sell. And some of the millennials don't even know where that came from, I mean that came from us, from Reasonable Doubt. I mean it's a great feeling just to be a part of that. To know that we're a part of history. Jay right now have more number 1 albums than Elvis Presley, behind The Beatles, we didn't plan that. It's just a celebration.

DJ Premier: I knew Jay already just from him with Jaz and we see each other in all the same hot spots, the fly spots where you wanted to get into where hip hop was underground, you had to be somebody to get in, you didn't have to be a platinum artist but you had to be somebody.

Kyambo "Hip Hop" Joshua: I basically met Jay through my brother Biggs. Kareem Burke when I was in high school. At a party he was performing at, we was on the line, and they basically told him "Hey this is Biggs little brother" and he said "Well come with me" and he basically took all of us off the line and we went into the club, and I've been with him ever since. Drinking Cristal the first time I was in the club.

Memphis Bleek: I grew up just knowing him as Shawn from the 5th floor. I knew his moms, his sister, his nephews, I used to babysit his nephews, his mom used to pay me a few dollars, so I always known him. I used to get in trouble for hanging with him, cause my mom knew they was the dope boys, you too young to be with the dope boys.

Kyambo "Hip Hop" Joshua: I believe it was the first day they opened the office up, and then asked if I wanted a job. At one time I had the album and nobody in the world had it. I was about to graduate so I had to, it was rehearsals, and I just remember listening to it, like nobody knows what I'm hearing, nobody knows what's about to happen. I wish I could have took my headphones, flipped them around, and let the world hear it.

Memphis Bleek: My favourite song on the album had to be "D'Evils." Hands down, I stole a copy of the song I liked it so much. To where Jay and B High came to my apartment, like "Yo I heard you giving out copies of this song, the word came back to you," they was ready to beat me up, drop me from even hanging with them cause they like "you a thief" but they didn't understand I needed that record for my soul, like you are talking to me.

DJ Premier: When I DJ gigs now, soon as I drop "D'Evils" the crowd goes crazy. And they're singing it, I'm watching them in the crowds mouthing the words, "Friend or Foe" too. "Friend or Foe" for the gigs I do, always makes the crowd go crazy. Soon as they hear it come on, it's on. "Friend or foe yo, state your biz
You tint the door, ah, there it is" Even when he says "you tint the door?" I drop the fader and it's silence, and the whole crowd go "and there it is" like in unison. And that's the proper place to drop the fader to see if they're following along cause they're die hard fans of those songs. Yeah "Friend or Foe's" heavy.